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Meta-analysis reveals that vertebrates enhance plant litter decomposition at the global scale

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 8, pages 411–422 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Evidence is mounting that vertebrate defaunation greatly impacts global biogeochemical cycling. Yet, there is no comprehensive assessment of the potential vertebrate influence over plant decomposition, despite litter decay being one of the largest global carbon fluxes. We therefore conducted a global meta-analysis to evaluate vertebrate effects on litter mass loss and associated element release across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Here we show that vertebrates affected litter decomposition by various direct and indirect pathways, increasing litter mass loss by 6.7% on average, and up to 34.4% via physical breakdown. This positive vertebrate impact on litter mass loss was consistent across contrasting litter types (woody and non-woody), climatic regions (boreal, temperate and tropical), ecosystem types (aquatic and terrestrial) and vertebrate taxa, but disappeared when evaluating litter nitrogen and phosphorus release. Moreover, we found evidence of interactive effects between vertebrates and non-vertebrate decomposers on litter mass loss, and a larger influence of vertebrates at mid-to-late decomposition stages, contrasting with the invertebrate effect known to be strongest at early decomposition stage. Our synthesis demonstrates a global vertebrate control over litter mass loss, and further stresses the need to account for vertebrates when assessing the impacts of biodiversity loss on biogeochemical cycles.

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Fig. 1: Conceptual model of vertebrate effects on plant litter decomposition and attendant nutrient release rates.
Fig. 2: Map showing the location of studies used in the meta-analysis.
Fig. 3: Analysing vertebrate effects on plant decomposition and nutrient release across various pathways, litter types, ecosystems and climates.
Fig. 4: Assessing vertebrate effects on plant decomposition (mass remaining, all litter types) across various vertebrate groups and litterbag mesh sizes.
Fig. 5: Vertebrate effects on plant decomposition (mass remaining, all litter types) and associated nutrient release at different decomposition intervals.

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Data availability

The data used in this meta-analysis have been archived on Figshare (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.23320955)176. The missing data on climatic conditions were gathered from the WorldClim database (https://www.worldclim.org/). The data used to create Supplementary Fig. 3a, depicting woodpecker occurrence, were obtained from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility website (https://www.gbif.org/). Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

The code used in this study is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.23320955.

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Acknowledgements

We thank those who contributed to original publications. E.R.Y was supported by the State Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 32030068). C.G. was supported by the Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdocs of Germany and National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 32101275). B.T. was funded by the China Scholarship Council (grant no. 2019061401117). We thank J. Hu for technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. A-LIFE, Systems Ecology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    Bin Tuo & Johannes H. C. Cornelissen

  2. Instituto de Ciencias Agrarias (ICA), CSIC, Madrid, Spain

    Pablo García-Palacios

  3. Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Pablo García-Palacios

  4. Forest Zoology, Technische Universität Dresden, Tharandt, Germany

    Chao Guo

  5. Zhejiang Zhoushan Archipelago Observation and Research Station, Tiantong National Forest Ecosystem Observation and Research Station, and Shanghai Key Lab for Urban Ecological Processes and Eco-Restoration, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China

    En-Rong Yan

  6. Institute of Eco-Chongming (IEC), Shanghai, China

    En-Rong Yan

  7. A-LIFE, Ecology & Evolution, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    Matty P. Berg

  8. GELIFES, Conservation and Community Ecology Group, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Matty P. Berg

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Contributions

B.T. and J.H.C.C designed this study. B.T. collected and analysed data, and wrote the manuscript. C.G. helped improve the conceptual diagram. P.G.-P, C.G., E.Y., M.P.B. and J.H.C.C. provided valuable inputs to the manuscript.

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Tuo, B., García-Palacios, P., Guo, C. et al. Meta-analysis reveals that vertebrates enhance plant litter decomposition at the global scale. Nat Ecol Evol 8, 411–422 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02292-6

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